1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an array substrate, a display panel having the array substrate and a method of manufacturing the array substrate. More particularly the present invention relates to an array substrate driven by a column inversion method, a display panel having the array substrate and a method of manufacturing the array substrate.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a display apparatus, such as a liquid crystal display, includes a display panel and a driving part for driving the display panel. The display panel includes an array substrate, an opposite substrate and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the array substrate and the opposite substrate.
The driving part includes a data driving part for providing a data signal to a data line and a gate driving part for driving a gate line with gate voltages. The data driving part provides the data signal to the data line via a column inversion method or a dot inversion method. The column inversion method may decrease power consumption of the display apparatus compared to the dot inversion method, but may generate a vertical stripe in the display image. On the other hand, the dot inversion method may increase the power consumption of the display apparatus compared to the column inversion method, but may prevent the vertical stripe.
In addition, the opposite substrate has a plurality of spacers. The spacers include a first spacer and a second spacer. The first spacer makes contact with an upper surface of the array substrate for maintaining a cell gap of the display panel and enhancing the durability of the display panel. The second spacer faces the upper surface of the array substrate and is used for uniformly filling a liquid crystal. The opposite substrate having the first and second spacers is combined with the array substrate with the liquid crystal interposed between the array and opposite substrates to manufacture the display panel. However, an area in which the first and second spacers make contact with the upper surface of the array substrate or in which the first and second spacers are disposed may be insufficient due to a stepped portion of the upper surface of the array substrate and an aperture ratio of a pixel displaying an image. Accordingly, the first and second spacers may not function properly.
Accordingly, there is a need for display panel that maintains cell gap and consumes small power without the vertical stripe defect.